Palimpsest- charcoal animation

The word "palimpsest" comes through Latin palimpsēstus from Ancient Greek παλίμψηστος (palímpsestos, “scratched or scraped again”) originally compounded from πάλιν (palin, “again”) and ψάω (psao, “I scrape”) literally meaning “scraped clean and used again”.
When I began working on Palimpsest I developed an idea that would utilize my skills from my film and video background, combined with mental images of my farm, Lynoch, I once owned in the Australian bush. I set out to make an animated artwork with no experience with stop motion animation or charcoal drawing. All it took for me was that first drawing taped to my studio wall and the click of the camera for something wonderful to emerge. I wanted to share through my drawing my feelings and experiences as an American living in the remote Australian bush. To relive the little things that grew to mean so much to me while so isolated from family, friends, and quite frankly other humans. I drew trees I loved, the cattle that moved back and forth across the field in their rhythmic parade, cockatoos that filled an old dead Iron bark just at sunset to roost and the airplane that always flew overhead everyday at the exact same time. It was during these explorations of my love for the bush that I began to unconsciously tell side stories, and unlike any film I have ever made for “production” this charcoal animation began to grow it’s own life.
Determined to let my art develop the story, I sat and drew and photographed for many days and nights. I asked my mind to only create the simplest of lines and when I erased I would look for the new lines to be created over the old “scene” and keep repeating this on a single sheet of paper, until the story was told.

What I present here is the final version of my artistic journey. Palimpsest in its beauty and simplicity.